Ingredients. Five of them.
I just watched a video titled “Hackney Revival” that is currently available for viewing at Monocle Magazine’s online Film section (link at end of this post). The video details a visit to “a small thoroughfare in east London’s Hackney, to get a read on the ingredients that underpin a community.” It’s a good watch and smart piece on place-making generally and one particular small business community in London, which shares many characteristics with some of the most interesting areas of San Fran, Brooklyn, Cambridge and Chicago here in the States. What makes this video especially valuable to me (and GSP’s work generally) comes at the end, when the narrator sums up his “recipe” for this thriving neighborhood’s success:
1) handsome houses;
2) a bit of grit;
3) essential services;
4) some retail innovation; and
5) time.
http://monocle.com/film/Business/hackney-revival/
Nice.
